“因民之所利而利之”——论儒家的经济干预主义及其限度

“Benefit the People for Their Own Sake”:On the Economic Interventionism of Confucianism and Its Limits

不同于完全的自由放任主义,儒家将“富民”作为政治的第一要务,认为国家干预对于矫正自由竞争的缺陷和弥补私人生产能力的不足是必要的,如为劳动者分配必要的生产资料,指导生产活动,提供资本支持,维护经济秩序,应对经济危机,建设基础设施,救助弱势群体等。但基于“富民”的唯一目标,国家干预必须以“因民之所利而利之”为基本原则,而不能附加任何财政目的,不能像“轻重论”那样利用干预手段谋取经济利益。儒家认识到,只有社会经济发展了,人民物质生活富足了,其建设礼乐文明的社会理想才可能实现。

Different from complete laissez-faire,Confucianism takes“enriching the people”as the first priority of politics.It believes that state intervention is necessary to correct the defects of free competition and make up for the deficiencies of private production capacity,such as allocating necessary means of production to workers,guiding production activities,providing capital support,maintaining economic order,coping with economic crises,building infrastructure,and improving the quality of production.However,based on the sole purpose of“enriching the people”,state intervention must be based on the basic principle of“benefit the people for their own sake”,and should not attach any financial purpose,and should not use intervention means to seek economic benefits as in the“Qingzhong theory”.Confucianism realizes that only with the development of social economy and the prosperity of people’s material life can its social ideal of building a civilization of etiquette and music be realized.